It's a newly created position and is intended to lead Macquarie’s "expanding Defence and National Security capabilities and pursuits". These include vertically integrated cyber-security, cloud, data centre and telecommunications services.
Foster will also support policies relating to the Australian government's Hardening Government IT (HGIT) Initiative. This was established under Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2020, which saw A$1.67 billion invested in cyber security.
In short HGIT is about protecting government networks from "the growing threat of malicious cyber activity" with specific intentions to strengthen the defence of government networks. This will be done through the development of the Cyber Hubs so such activities as government agencies’ cyber monitoring, detection, and response capabilities can be centralised.
Macquarie Government Managing Director Aidan Tudehope said Foster's appointment demonstrates the organisation’s "strong and ongoing investment in homegrown talent and is reflective of its impressive multi-year growth".
“Mike’s deep experience leading large and complex ICT programs for Defence will be critical for Macquarie Government as we continue to build on our capability offering to Federal and State Government customers,” Tudehope said.
“This appointment comes during a time of unprecedented growth for Macquarie Government. In January alone we welcomed and on-boarded 10 new starters and we expect that to grow by a further 40 in the coming months as we fill a range of roles in security, cloud, and DevOps areas," he added.
Over more than 10 years at Fujitsu Foster developed a dedicated workforce of more than 500 employees for the Department of Defence and oversaw the signing of a A$99 million contract with Defence to provide desktop-related services to 100,000 personnel across more than 450 Australian locations.
He also spent six years as a non-executive director of Telstra Clear and also held the roles of chief of business sales at Telstra and MD Australia and New Zealand for EMC, now part of Dell.
Foster said of his new appointment: “For over a decade Macquarie Government has gained unparalleled insight into the digital landscape in which Australian government agencies now operate,” he said.
“The expertise the Macquarie team has gained from providing cyber-security, infrastructure and cloud services to a wide range of Federal Government agencies is unparalleled. That expertise is highly valued by the Federal Government and I’m excited to be leading the company’s next evolution to further support the Defence and National Security sectors.”
Almost a year ago Macquarie Telecom Group appointed Major General Marcus Thompson AM PhD – the former head of the Australian Defence Force’s cyber warfare division – to its government advisory board.
Other recent senior appointments have included Peter Merrick as GM, and Mark Vardy as strategic bid manager. As of 2021, Macquarie Telecom Group has more than 200 government-cleared security staff.
